Natural gas shortages and increased prices for natural gas resulting from such shortages have resulted in substantial efforts to produce liquefied natural gas from a hydrocarbon feedstock near the well site of major gas producing countries to permit transportation to a foreign consumer. Because of the extreme amount of energy involved in the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the complete cycle including distillation for removing condensible components from the hydrocarbon feedstock and the refrigeration cycle for liquefying the methane obtained from the distillation cycle, must be extremely efficient in order to compete with other fuel sources. Also increased energy costs in producing liquefied natural gas result in decreased profits.